I xxxi ] 



other people. Ripple Lake, Cardinal Shore, Bittern 

 Cliff, Owl-Nest Swamp, Arethusa Meadow, Curly- 

 Pate Hill, Purple Utricularia Bay, Bidens Brook, 

 Hubbard's Close, — these and many similar names 

 are capitalized and otherwise dignified in his journal 

 records just as if he were speaking of London or Paris 

 or New York. But where were these places.'' It was 

 useless to appeal to residents of Concord. They 

 might as well have been situated in Siberia or Pata- 

 gonia. Even persons still living who had known 

 Thoreau personally and had occasionally been with 

 him on some of his walks were hopelessly in the dark 

 as to most of them. Ellery Channing, author of a 

 life of Thoreau, and his most frequent walking com- 

 panion, who lingered forty years after the death of 

 his friend and associate, was appealed to in connec- 

 tion with two or three localities, but his memory was 

 afterwards proved to be sadly at fault. 



It was only by a careful comparison of all the jour- 

 nal references to each locality, the examination of a 

 large number of Thoreau's manuscript surveys pre- 

 served in the Concord Library, and especially by 

 following out on the ground Thoreau's tramps afield, 

 that finally the greater number of these localities 

 were identified. 



One amusing incident occurred in connection with 

 the effort to locate "Spaulding's Parm." Readers 

 of the volume entitled Excursions will perhaps recall 

 that Thoreau makes this farm the subject of one of 



